Tag Archives: the play is the thing

Shadowlands: A Play

Posted on November 22, 2025 by smellincoffee

C.S. Lewis died on 11/22/63, a week before his 65th birthday. Over the years, I have taken up the habit of spending “a week with Jack” — reading something of his in that space, to spend time with an author … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Religion and Philosophy, Reviews | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Grease (is the word)

Posted on June 24, 2025 by smellincoffee

I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve watched Grease over the years: much of its music is firmly lodged in my head (and insisted on playing itself as I read this), so you might say I’m a fan. Grease: … Continue reading →

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A Tudor Christmas

Posted on December 11, 2023 by smellincoffee

Alison Weir’s A Tudor Christmas is a short social history of how Christmas was celebrated in the days of Henry VIII and his daughters. (And, ever so briefly, his son.) After some background information on the different cultural traditions that … Continue reading →

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“Our revels now are ended…”

Posted on February 28, 2023 by smellincoffee

This past weekend I was privileged to see one of the final performances of Greta Lambert at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, where she performed the role of Prospero in Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”. I’d never seen or even read “The Tempest” … Continue reading →

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Monroeville and TKAM

Posted on February 27, 2023 by smellincoffee

Monroeville and the Stage Production of “To Kill a Mockingbird” © 2023 John M. Williams160 pages The first time I ever visited Monroeville, I had the dumb luck to arrive on a day when the courthouse-turned-museum was hosting a theatrical … Continue reading →

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Fools and Mortals

Posted on January 12, 2018 by smellincoffee

Fools and Mortals© 2017 Bernard Cornwell384 pages Brevity is the soul of wit, so here’s an attempt at a quick  review.  Bernard Cornwell usually writes war novels, and he’s magnificent at it. But he surely gets tired of it, and … Continue reading →

Posted in historical fiction, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments

Rossum’s Universal Robots

Posted on October 17, 2017 by smellincoffee

R.U.R© 1920 Karel Capek120 pages ALQUIST: . Has Nana got a prayer book?HELENA Yes, a big thick one.ALQUIST And has it got prayers for various occasions? Against thunderstorms? Against illness?HELENA Against temptations, against floods!––ALQUIST But not against progress?HELENA I don’t … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, science fiction | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

This week: MURDER! and leftovers

Posted on October 11, 2016 by smellincoffee

From The Montgomery Advertiser.  Last night I enjoyed the Alabama Shakespeare Festival’s final performance of “The Mousetrap”, based off of Christie’s “Three Blind Mice”.  (The play is still running in the west end, of course, sixty four years and counting…) … Continue reading →

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Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Posted on October 8, 2016 by smellincoffee

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child© 2016 Jack Thorne, J.K. Rowling, and John Tiffany320 pages Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the book young adults who grew up with Harry have been waiting for….though it’s not quite what they … Continue reading →

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Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol

Posted on November 23, 2015 by smellincoffee

Another week gone, another entry from the 2015 reading challenge: earlier I received “Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol” and couldn’t help reading it waaaay too early. It didn’t take long, being a fifty-page play that’s essentially a retelling of “A Christmas … Continue reading →

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